Often times agents advertise "staging" services as part of their marketing package. If they don't hire a third-party professional home stager then they typically don't list a lot of details about their staging services in their literature. I usually chuckle silently to myself when I hear agents talk about providing their own staging expertise as a competitive advantage. I mean, it seems like any person with a command of the english language and the ability to see in color can tell a seller to repaint their red accent wall in a neutral and advertise that as "professional staging advice".
My second staging appointment today was with a couple desperate to sell their home and listing with their second agent. Luckily their second agent is a fabulous client of mine who hires me to stage all of her listings. This couple's previous agent had told them to "stage" the main floor office, a small room right off the entry and no where near the kitchen, as a dining room. This new "dining room" barely had room for a standard round, 4-top dinette and a silk tree. Did I mention that it really wasn't convenient to the kitchen, where the food to be used in the dining room comes from?
I guess I can kind of understand what must have been the previous agent's thought process. Nice ranch without a formal dining room, let's use this "extra" room as a dining room so potential buyers can't raise that objection. But does it make sense? Was it really a good idea considering this room was smaller than a standard formal dining room and so far from the food prep area? Set up this way the room stuck out like a sore thumb (great first impression). And it just so happens that the sellers, who had moved into their new home already but left behind several key pieces of furniture to work with, had also left behind two desks in other bedrooms but had left the eat-in area of the kitchen empty because their agent told them to move their dining table into the office.
I firmly believe that people should do what they do best and not try to be something they aren't. Real estate agents should spend their time helping clients buy and sell houses and let professional stagers work their magic on their listings. This way everyone benefits - the agent saves time, creates a better relationship with their seller, and has a better listing to show; the seller usually benefits from selling their house sooner and has the peace of mind to know that their stager helped them create a comprehensive staging strategy; and the stager wins with the continued partnership with their agent clients and obviously the opportunity to have a blast staging yet another home!
Have you had any similar experiences with agents doing their own staging and missing the mark?
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